Definition of Business Process Improvement (BPI)

Business process improvement (BPI) is like giving your organization a tune-up. It’s all about taking a careful look at how things are done, figuring out what’s working well and what’s not quite up to snuff. Then, we roll up our sleeves and make tweaks and adjustments to make everything run smoother and more efficiently. We hunt down any areas where time or coffers are being wasted and find ways to fix them up. BPI is like the mechanic for your business, using tools like Six Sigma, Lean Management, or Total Quality Management to fine-tune operations and make sure everything is running in tip-top shape, all while keeping an eye on the big picture of your organization’s goals and objectives.

Navigating Business Process Improvement: From Incremental Tweaks to Radical Overhauls

A company’s business process is the system in place, encompassing a series of tasks to attain a goal. In other words, the pre-established steps toward the desired outcome. Regardless of department, it directly impacts the final result, shaping it in many small ways. A good business process is important for businesses in the UAE and worldwide. So, it is easy to figure out that business process improvement (BPI) is the incremental improvement of an organization’s practices.

BPI typically looks like gradual and continuous streamlining of how a business goes about achieving its objectives. It aims to remove actions and steps that lead to a task holding up, delaying accomplishing goals.

While BPIs are a common and gentle process for most businesses, it should be noted that they have an alternative. And that is business process engineering (BPE), also known as business process reengineering (BPR). This is a more radical, all-round upheaval of the present systems for more intense results. As LUBM has explained in another post, it lives up to its name, acting as a seismic shift.

So, what Can it Change?

Those who work in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, or plan to, will benefit from knowing why Business Process Improvements are necessary. Anyone who has been a part of a group project is aware that it works best when:

• The work is broken up into tasks
• The project is divided into different sections
• The work is divided between members

Organizational goals work the same way. From that perspective, a business is only a unit of people working on a project. So, from there, we can understand that each department is a section. And within that section are various tasks assigned to members who represent that section.

With this understanding, it feels like a natural thing to increase the efficiency of task completion.

Why does this help?

Well, for one thing, Business Process Improvements save money. Staff and experts are hired at a cost for their valuable skills. If they are not given a proper framework to do their jobs—from resources to support—it’s a waste of funds.

Speaking of funds, exploring and thinking of how the tasks and members interact can help direct investments. A business that is aware of what its own members need to thrive can make good decisions on technological investments.

Thirdly, it is a time saver in the long run. Time is a valuable asset to professionals and a litmus test of resource efficiency. Analyzing the established business process will reveal where and how time is squandered. In turn, this affects the efficiency of the business. Once the business process improvements are implemented, they will turbocharge it, yielding better results.

Read all about applying successful business process optimization in the UAE, complete with a full breakdown.

Overall, the goal of business process improvements is to lower company costs, increase productivity, and spur results. With that in mind, project management specialists are in high demand in the Middle East. Regional dynamos UAE and Saudi Arabia report increases of as much as 60% in project management demand.

Earn the degree if managing business processes and other project management tasks pique your interest. At LUBM, we pride ourselves on the universities we partner with. That is why we offer students in the UAE an MBA in Project and Operations Management from Geneva Business School, Switzerland. We also offer an MBA in Project and Operations Management from York St John University.

Additionally, we offer an MSc in Project Management from the renowned University of the West of Scotland (UWS). That aside, LUBM offers a scholarship for aspiring professionals. Do take the time to see if you qualify for the same.